Chapter 64: Chapter: 62

A young man walks with a huge grin on his face, today he is going to meet the representative of Fortuna Merchant Guild as the Manager of the Goldway Merchant to talk about the business agreement regarding the raw materials supply of the hottest topic of the day that spread like a wildfire, the revolutionary magic pendant for a long-distance communication tool.

This thing will trigger a new era of magic tools.

Everyone who knows business will start to predict how much of impact on the Azure economic growth caused by this change, they are trying hard to build a business relation to Fortuna, but unfortunately, that chance was already given to the Goldway Merchant.

However, it was not the reason behind this young man's joyous atmosphere, today he has another plan behind his master's back, Baron Goldway, and he will surely carry out the plan once he met with Fortuna's representative.

Knock! Knock!

He knocked on the door to his master's office while tidying up his already-neat collar as the Baron's voice was heard from the inside.

"Come in"

The young manager comes in replacing his grin with his professional smile of a perfectionist manager, his black hair was combed in a formal style, but behind his clear light brown eyes, there lies a big ambition of his, big enough to make the Baron wary of him.

"Oh my most talented Manager, come here and let's have a tea before you meet Fortuna's representative"

Baron Goldway warmly welcomed the young man who will soon be in his twenties and personally brewing the tea for him, the greedy pig's fake kindness was too obvious that without fail makes the manager feel disgusted inwardly but still keeping his demeanor.

"Thank you, Master. I will never forget all of the generosity you have shown to me"

The manager answered back with a smile that no less fake compare to his master, both of them are like snakes full of poisonous words and malicious intent coiled on each other's neck.

"Hahaha, what are you talking about? You are like a son to me..."

Baron Goldway stopped his words as he put a cup of tea on the table in front of his good-looking manager, he simply despises this young man's talent in business that far surpasses his.

All of this manager's grand achievements to double, no, triple the development of the Goldway merchant guild in these 4 years he worked for him, gradually makes him wary of his ambitious eyes.

If only the Baron could enslave the talented young man, he would have done it a long time ago, but making him a slave is no different than burying his talent which has been the source of the Goldway's fortune these years.

However, everything will be alright as long as this young man is under his watch, this manager shall either work for him or die for him.

If the Baron can not have this man's talent, it means no one can, its best to kill this young man first if he started to rebel against him before he turned into a threat to his business.

Flop!

The baron sit on the couch in front of him and smiled like a proud father before he continues to speak.

"Yes, I have raised you well"

The body of the young man stiffened as he heard Baron Goldway's remarks, he inwardly frowned upon the Baron's words of raising him, when all the Baron did was trapping him and monopolize his talent to fill his own greed.

However, this young man is no different, in terms of greed, he...

'You are nothing but my stepping stone'

He snorted inwardly, working for the Baron he gained a lot of connections, knowledge, and experiences. just like how the Baron uses him, he did the same while pretending to be an obedient dog with the heart of a snake waiting for the chance to bite his owner.

'And the long-awaited chance has finally come'

Simply being the shadow of this swine is not enough, his greed won't ever be satisfied with working for a small noble like him, he will never reach the top if he stays here, he wants to climb higher...

High enough to look down upon the world.

"You are too kind, Master"

He replied before sipping the tea served by the Baron to relax his stiffened body.

"Lately, the rumors encircled among the folks are not in our favor, if you want to pay for my kindness, you should have known better than anyone else as to the reason why I called you here, shouldn't you?"

Feeling enough to beat around the bush, Baron Goldway speaks straight to the point as the time for the young Manager to meet Fortuna's representative is approaching.

"Yes, Master. I will secure the deal whatever the costs, and bring back the good news"

The greedy manager replied reassuring his master even though he has no intention to succeed in the business agreement whatsoever since he has his own plan.

"I think it's time for me to meet the Fortu-"

Bam!

Before the manager finished his line to excuse himself, someone hastily barged into the room and make the 2 of them jolted in surprise.

The one who has rudely entered the room is a middle-aged man with a pale complexion, it's none other than the Baron's right-hand man who runs towards his master as soon as his gazes are met with the Baron's.

"M-master, the G-grand Counselor is m-missing"

The man whispered in trembling to relay the news, however, because he was overwhelmed by anxiety, his shaking voice is leaking and could be heard by the dumbfounded young manager, but soon regains his sense back as the master of the building shouted loudly.

"WHAT?!"

Baron Goldway gets up from the couch as he accidentally raised his voice, last night that arrogant counselor just doing fine as always, even though he was carelessly wandering around by himself, his statement is flawless regarding his high social status and connections, there should be no one in their right mind would do any harm to him.

Sighed.

He let out a heavy sigh because of the storm-like abrupt news and sit on the comfortable couch once again, last night, the masked man just told them to lie low in the time being before the civil war breaks out, yet one of the 3 main keys is missing right in the morning after the meeting.

'Should I secretly deploy a search team? It seems too rush'

'Or should we wait? There's a chance he is having fun for the night and didn't come back to his chamber in time'

The baron lost in his train of thought completely forgot about the manager in front of him.

"Hhmm, Master?"

The young manager breaks the silence in the room, he lost his moment to excuses himself because of the unexpected news.

"Ah, you may go"

Unlike the fake warm smile before, Baron Goldway doesn't have enough energy left to put up his acting and coldly sent him away.

"Yes, Master"

With a short answer, the talented manager bows and walks towards the door, for a brief moment, he was thinking about the missing Grand counselor, even though it has nothing to do with him, he wonders if the Grand counselor was really abducted...

Just what kind of fearless person the kidnapper is.

-•-

An old man is sitting leisurely in the VIP room of the famous restaurant owned by the Goldway merchant group at the capital, as the representative of Fortuna, the old man is treated like a King here.

It was the Baron's request for the meeting to be held in his place, obviously, he wants to uncover a little bit about the mysterious Fortuna through the representative seeing how the workers keep watching his movement from the moment he arrived at the fancy restaurant.

This old man is none other than Leviathan in disguise.

His Lord put her illusion magic to conceal his real appearance, and he changed his voice with a magic tool made by his charming yet annoying brother, Asmodeus.

Levi smiled with the thought of gaining a new brother yet again, today his duty is to escort this potential new member of Tartarus.

Based on the information, he is a greedy young man who has ambition big enough to be laughed at, an expert in business management and financial duties, he loves money than anything else.

'What a realistic man'

Somehow it remains him to his Lord who will definitely choose wealth over her pitiful fiancee who longed for her attention, it's concerning to have a fellow who has the same character as his rapacious Lord, these two altogether may arrange a regular schedule to loot other's precious treasury.

Levi was too engrossed in his own thoughts about the exciting future of the Tartarus organization that he didn't realize an attractive young man is approaching him.

"My deepest apology for the wait"

He said bowing to the old man, even though the manager didn't come later to the appointment time but the fact that the guest arrived sooner than the host is a shame that requires an apology.

"Ah, it's alright. It was my fault to come earlier"

The old man gets up to greet the young one.

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance"

"Yes, I'm looking forward to working with you"

After exchanging a brief greeting, the two of them sit face to face in the spacious private rooms, but as an awakener, Levi could feel others' presences hiding around him, they are being watched.

Ignoring his surroundings, the old man opened the conversation with the young manager pretending to not know.

"This is the list of the required raw materials and the amount needed, we can start to negotiate about the price after I confirmed the quality of the goods"

Levi said acting like a proper merchant who is doing business as he gives the young manager an envelope contains a piece of paper that is supposed to be the list of the material names, but...

The recipient of the envelope got confused as he can only see 1 line that was written on it,

[The owner of the Fortuna merchant guild wishes to meet you in person]

"Ah!"

He finally realized that this envelope is actually a secret message because they are being watched by the Baron's men.

Just like a dream comes true, he got the chance to meet the owner of the raising merchant, his luck today is too good as if this was his last lucky day.

Gulped.

He doesn't want to let go of such a rare opportunity to climb up.

"The amount of the goods in our warehouse should suffice but we don't know if it meets your quality standards..."

He answered back saying nonsense mimicking Levi, for those who are watching and eavesdropping on these two from afar, they don't look suspicious at all as both of them are not even showing a little bit of nervousness in telling lies.

Before meeting with the owner of Fortuna, they need to get out of this restaurant without any suspicion and escape from their watch.

"Shall we go and check the materials?"

"Sure, I'd like to confirm the quality by myself"

The 2 of them get out of the restaurant while pretending to head towards the nearest warehouse which was located in the capital as well.

They choose to walk instead of riding a carriage because it is easier to escape from the Baron's men.

Step! Step! Step!

The footsteps echoed through the narrow alley, this is the shortcut to the warehouse and the perfect place to escape, the young man racks his brain to get rid of the men who are still persistently following them, he could feel their presence, there are only two remaining spies, unlike the time when they are at the restaurant.

"My Lord, the trapped mouse has 2 tails on him, should I get rid of them?"

His steps stopped in startled when he heard the smirking old man's vicious voice, he is speaking to his shining blue earring engraved with an ominous symbol, he doesn't remember the old man is wearing such an earring before.

'What's going on?'

He tried to remain calm and observe the situation, but unexpectedly what he heard next is just adding another question to his chaotic mind, even though it's faint, he could hear a little girl's voice from that blue earring.

"Catch the tails"

It was a simple yet cold order, he can't stop his heartbeat after hearing the girl's voice, no, it's not like that kind of romantic way of heartbeat, it's more like fear,  he is not stupid, he knows that 'trapped mouse' is him and 'the tails' are those spies, they are talking about the life of humans here.

But that voice remains cold and held no emotions, even though the old man offered to get rid of the spies by killing them, the girl still unwavered.

"W-who are you?"

The manager stepped back in wary, not knowing that the surrounding area has been covered by a largely invisible barrier.

"A Butler"

Levi said with his devilish smirk as the illusion wear off, the old man turned into a good-looking young man with the neat Butler's clothing.

To be continued...

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Author's Corner:

The April Fool's Day in the previous chapter is almost ended up with tragedy, sometimes readers can be so scary.

I regret it....

(;'༎ຶ۝༎ຶ')

Anyway, I was on a trip for days with my family and it was too fun, no, I mean too busy to write a chapter

♪～('ε｀　)

I tried to write, really...

Truly...

Certainly...

But how can I keep focusing on the story when my sister is enjoying the hotel's pool.

Note: my mom freaked out for a moment when I trained my floating skill in the pool as you guys suggested to me, it was nice to feel the water by closing my eyes and keep my mouth shut though...

I should've told her in advance that I am alive.

Here we go, the double update

Enjoy the next chapter~